SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Saturday, the United States Postal Service delivered more than just the mail, in fact, they did some collecting. Letter carriers across western Massachusetts were delighted to pick up the extra load, in addition to their regular route delivery.

Mail carriers collected big blue bags stuffed with canned goods for the needy. The 25th annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive was a huge success, thanks to generosity of local residents.

Lori Seaver, who has spent 30 years with the Postal Service told 22News, “My customers love it out there. They don’t give just one or two cans they give you one of two bags. Some of the people who you don’t think are going to be able to give, they give the most.”

Once on the mail mobile, the food was offloaded at the Springfield Post Office on Liberty Street.

Joanna Ranck, the Post Office Supervisor said, “We don’t even have half our fleet back. And once these other vehicles comes back, you can see with what they are pulling off of here, I absolutely believe we will fill these trucks.”

Donald Harvey, of Springfield Rescue Mission said, “If we get too much of it we allocate it some of the churches in the city, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, and St. John’s. Everybody gets a little piece of the pie let’s put it that way.”

Nationally more than 1,500 branches collected more than 1.3 billion pounds of food over the last 24 years.

Michael Harazmus, President, Western Mass Letter Carriers Union, told 22News, “It’s kind of a godsend that we get to restock the pantries throughout western Massachusetts so we are glad to do it.”

The last mail mobile arrived to offload food at 5:30 Saturday evening. The donations are already helping the area’s less fortunate.